Longer days, improved reading: Good trade-off: Editorial

State Sen. David Simmons sums up the concept of extended school days with a Thomas Alva Edison quote:

"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work."

No doubt, the 2012 state law that added an extra hour to the school day for intensive reading instruction at Florida's 100 worst-performing elementary schools looked like work to students.

Nevertheless, come March's legislative session, lawmakers mustn't miss the opportunity to buoy more at-risk students by embracing Simmons' $100 million proposal to expand an initiative that's already produced dramatic improvements.

The Altamonte Springs Republican's plan: persuade lawmakers to triple the inventory of schools with elongated school days.

"Not only does it [extended days] help avoid the personal tragedy of a possibly wasted life, it helps avoid the huge societal cost to all of us," Simmons says.

There's evidence he's on to something. In a study of the initiative's first year, 2012-13, the state Office of Program Policy Analysis & Government Accountability found that 73 of the 100 schools boosted the percentage of pupils scoring at grade level. Likewise, 70 were scratched from the following year's list of 100 lowest performers after sufficiently raising their Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test scores.

Dramatic results. And gains that mirror a 2007 extended-time pilot program that Simmons championed. Of the quartet of elementary schools involved, Orlando's Orange Center enjoyed the most striking gains in test scores and school grades. It rose from an F in 2007 to an A in 2008.

In the case of the pilot and the current 100-school mandate, the results echo national studies and results elsewhere — particularly for low-income, low-achieving students.

Expansion of what Education Week reports is America's only extended-time program focused on reading wouldn't come from an additional appropriation. Rather, lawmakers would reallocate existing dollars within the K-12 budget toward a small wrinkle that's helping close a mammoth educational gulf.

"It proves those people wrong who claim that these children just can't learn and that we must, in effect, resign ourselves to a group of second-class, under-educated citizens," Simmons says.

Not that extended-time alone is the Holy Grail. Even with more time on their side, studies show students won't grow without quality instruction and commitment. To that point, Simmons says the expansion would address school-level issues, especially those related to implementation and continuity.

Edison also famously said, "There's a way to do it better — find it."

For many of Florida's potential educational throwaways, extended-time has proved a better way. Tripling its breadth promises viral success. In Edison's name, let this be one of those too-rare instances that the legislative light bulb comes on.